Read Online More than Truth (Arcane Crossbreeds) by Amanda Vyne - Free Book Online Page A

injury.
    A small smile twisted the doctor’s thin lips as he carefully scrutinized Vin with those soulless eyes. The man knew what Vin’s reaction would be, had been discreetly cultivating it from the moment he walked into this room. Why?
    It was a question that bore investigating further, but for now he needed to carefully navigate this situation in a way that would prevent the doctor from gaining any advantage in whatever game he was playing. Vin girded himself with a slow breath and turned around to give Dr. Britony Mahoney an impassive but thorough study.
    An unintelligible tangle of emotion slammed in his chest. He’d expected a strong reaction but was unprepared for the onslaught that hit him.
    She was here. After all this time, she was a mere twenty feet away on her hands and knees, shoulders rising and falling with each breath. There was a tear in her wrinkled blouse near the shoulder, and her face was concealed by the fall of hair that was a darker red than he remembered. Although he couldn’t discern an injury, he could smell it. Anger suffused him as he moved his gaze over the defeated lines of her body. What had they done to her? At a mere sixteen years old, she’d been a force of nature, pale blue eyes alive and electric. Now she appeared beaten.
    Blood pounded in his temples and behind his eyes as his dragon arched and swelled inside him. Magma slithered through every line and curve of the tattoo that marked his arm as he restrained his dragon.
    “How do you feel now, Dr. Mahoney?” Dr. Rupple’s nasal voice rang through the room, ripe with satisfaction, but his gaze was fixed on Vin. “A little more agreeable to my demands, I hope.”
    Dr. Mahoney raised her chin. Narrowed eyes peered through long ropes of red hair. She blinked rapidly and touched her tongue to the corner of her mouth. Vin could just see the pale angles of her face, one cheek swollen and colored with a dark bruise, her bottom lip split open. Blood marred her pale skin.
    “That depends, Dr. Rupple,” she rasped harshly. “Are you more agreeable to my demands?”
    Vin almost smiled, but Dr. Rupple’s next words had his dragon stirring once again.
    “You may want to rethink your demands, Dr. Mahoney, because I’ve been authorized to use any means short of causing your death to obtain your assistance with this. I’m sure you’re intelligent enough to recognize that could be a very fine and excruciating line to walk.”

Chapter Six
    “Perhaps you should allow me to intervene before this situation deteriorates further.”
    Brit jerked her head, turning away from the spear of light that assaulted her sensitive eyes. The deep voice that resonated just a few feet in front of her belonged to a man who looked like—no certainly that wasn’t possible. Tag Jennings was at Incog. This man couldn’t possibly be him. No, he… felt different to her. Shock created a solid wall, holding her reaction captive as the thoughts surged and pressed against the barrier. This man looked so much like Tag, yet she knew it wasn’t him.
    Brit watched the man advance on her, his stride long and confident. Her arms were starting to shake from the strain of holding herself up, and she gritted her teeth against the ravenous exhaustion that made her want to just lie down on the floor. The man crouched down in front of her and swept her hair aside with one massive hand to peer at her face. She would have stared him down, but she was fresh out of bravado and so she flinched instead. The guards had tossed her around a bit before dragging her from “the hole,” and she felt every inch of her skin, particularly the parts where they had kicked her.
    His big body blocked the harsher elements of the overhead lights, but she still had to blink several times to focus on his broad face. Like Tag, his skin was dark cream-laden coffee—her favorite. Those eyes were bright by comparison, a rusty green and brown shadowed by heavy brows. Unlike Tag, he had a thick head